9 Snow Day Activities for Runners

Stuck indoors? Yet again? Here's how to avoid going stir-crazy.

Readers, are you as sick as I am of all these storms? And by the weather industry's insistence on naming them? By my count, Titan is the 98th winter storm to hit the country this season, hot on the heels of Winter Storm Seneca, Winter Storm Rex, Winter Storm Quaalude, Winter Storm Prefontaine, Winter Storm Oprah, and Winter Storm Nosferatu, all of which happened last week. If you're anything like me, you've spent at least a third of this winter stuck indoors, slowly going insane. Indoors is not where runners like to be. Runners like to be outdoors, running. Or possibly drinking beer, after running.

With spring still 17 days away, I predict at least 11 more MAJOR WEATHER EVENTS this winter, followed by several more after spring's official arrival, which will seem even more galling, because, you know, What the hell, Mother Nature, don't you know it's spring?!?

That's a lot of downtime. Here are nine ways to spend it.

1. Alphabetize Your Shoes

First by brand (Adidas, Altra, Asics, Brooks, etc.), then by model if you have multiple models of any given brand. If you have multiple pairs of the same model, organize those by age. If you have multiple pairs of the same model and they're exactly the same age, cancel the rest of your plans for the day, because this will take a while.

2. Make a Running Diorama

Remember dioramas? Weren't they fun to make? Create your own running landscape in an old shoe box, with scenery and "runners" cut out of back issues of Runner's World. Bonus points for use of glitter and pipe cleaners.

3. Make a Jogging Diorama

Same as above, but place a tiny corpse behind a tiny shrub, waiting to be discovered.

4. Eat. Carbo-Load

Finally! You have time to catch up on all that fueling you've been putting off. RELATED: Did you know ice cream has carbs? It's true.

5. Sniff All of Your Running Clothes

Toss the five items that smell worst. Or wrap them to give as gifts to people you don't like very much.

6. Organize Your Bib Numbers

They have a way of piling up, don't they? (I stuff mine into a cardboard box in the closet.) Take yours out, sort them by year, press them with a warm iron, and stack them in neat piles. Then throw them away. Simplify, man!

7. Bake Gingerbread Runner Cookies

These are just like gingerbread man cookies, but more gaunt. You can nibble one while you iron your bib numbers.

8. Make a Sofa-Cushion Fort

This one isn't running-centric, but hey -- who doesn't enjoy a good sofa-cushion fort?

9. Take Your Garmin Apart

Then see if you can put it back together again, with no pieces left over. It's harder than you think!